Thursday, October 07, 2010

Look What I Figured Out!

I invented a non-provisional tubular cast-on! (Non knitters, skip ahead.) I'm knitting a 1x1 ribbed cowl, and I remembered vaguely that I'd seen a Eunny Jang tutorial. I watched that, sighed, and was too lazy to go find some provisional yarn that I was willing to cut into bits. Then the phone rang, and as I chatted, I invented how to do it, with no provisions! I'm sure it's reinventing the wheel, but I feel terribly clever. You use Judy's Magic Cast-On, work a round, then pick it up from there. Fiddly, needs a dpn & a long circ, but requires no cutting! No provisional yarn! I may do up a photo tutorial of it.

For now, here's the CO edge. See? The tubular cast on provides a very even, elastic, uniform, BEAUTIFUL edge!
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I also learned that the knitting muses are big on humble, humble pie. I'd originally swatched on a 4.5 mm, didn't like the fabric, decided to guess at the numbers & go down to a 3.75mm. Turns out, 108st was too small, and the fabric was too dense. So I found my 4.0mm, cast on 120 st, then actually looked at my needles... and looked again... and realized that I actually had found a 3.5mm needle. I sighed, then thanked my muse for making sure I had such a great opportunity to really, really learn my tricksy new cast on, then finally got it right. I've cranked out about an inch of the ribbing now, and so far, am cautiously optimistic.
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What else did I learn... even a quick trip to Ikea takes a Very Long Time. I also learned that small, eager, drooly assistants in no way help or speed up building Ikea furniture, and that Eleni is in love with screwdrivers. My job was first to thwart that love, then to build the $#% drawers..
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I've realized that I'm really, really loving fall... The colors are everywhere in my life, not just outside on the trees.
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There's the fingering sampler pack I got from
Impulse Of Delight .
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There's the chunk of color that I stuck in my hair...
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And there's the color I just painted my toes & some
Sanguine Gryphon yarn that I'm totally in love with. (Skinny Bugga, just for fun.)
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And fall what else? Falling asleep....
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(A terrible segue, I know, but meh, I'm beat.)







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